Austria's Supreme Court Officially Recognizes Frogs' Right to Perform Night Concerts A long-running legal dispute between neighbors in Fasching, Austria has officially ended. One local resident complained for years about noisy concerts of nocturnal amphibians in a neighbor's pond - the noise made him simply unable to sleep with the window open. Initially, the victory was his: the court of first instance obliged the owners of the pond to calm down the amphibians and pay expenses of 30 thousand euros. In an attempt to save themselves from fines, the site owners even put pike in the water so that it would thin out the population of "artists". But in the end, the Austrian Supreme Court put an end to the dispute: the frogs won. The higher authority determined that these amphibians belong to protected species, and they inhabited the pond themselves - people did not bring them there. So there will be nightly serenades. Photo: Alexander Korniushchenko.

Austria's Supreme Court Officially Recognizes Frogs' Right to Perform Night Concerts A long-running legal dispute between neighbors in Fasching, Austria has officially ended. One local resident complained for years about noisy concerts of nocturnal amphibians in a neighbor's pond - the noise made him simply unable to sleep with the window open. Initially, the victory was his: the court of first instance obliged the owners of the pond to calm down the amphibians and pay expenses of 30 thousand euros. In an attempt to save themselves from fines, the site owners even put pike in the water so that it would thin out the population of "artists". But in the end, the Austrian Supreme Court put an end to the dispute: the frogs won. The higher authority determined that these amphibians belong to protected species, and they inhabited the pond themselves - people did not bring them there. So there will be nightly serenades. Photo: Alexander Korniushchenko.